Fishhook remover



y 5 I J. T. SHARPE 2,887,817

FISHHOOK REMOVER Filed April 4. 195a FIG.2. f/ I- I JNVENTOR.

RcK T. SHARPE A T TORWE YS United States PatentO FISHHOOK REMOVER Jack T. Sharpe, Knoxville, Tenn. Application April 4, 1958, Serial No. 726,371

3 Claims. c1. ts-53.5

This invention relates to an instrument for removing barbed fishhooks from the mouths of fish and from other matter, which is of a novel configuration and which enables the removal of the hook with a minimum of elfort and with a minimum of damage to thetissues.

The novel instrument is so designed that its outer extremity will cover the point and barb of the hook, making it possible to push the hook back through its hole of entry without tearing the tissues due to impingement thereagainst of the reverse face of the barb of the hook. The tip of the instrument is tapered on its outer walls to its extremity and is provided with an axial, cylindrical recess in its interior to receive the point and barb of the hook.

The novel instrument is rectangularly bent and curved through some 90 at its upper extremity, enabling the removal of the point and barb of the hook by a turning or twisting motion of some 90, rather than by the straight push previously required in instruments of this type, as illustrated in Steele Patent No. 2,589,976.

It is therefore a primary object of this invention to evolve an instrument for the removal of barbed hooks which is so designed that it will cover the point and barb of the hook completely and enable the ready removal of the point and barb of the hook through the hole made by the point of the hook on its entry.

It is an object of this invention to provide such an instrument which will leave a surgically clean hole in the flesh and which will eliminate tearing and abrasion of the flesh.

It is another object of this invention to evolve such an instrument in which a turning of the handle through an arc of approximately 90 will elfect a ready removal of the hook.

It is a further object of this invention to evolve an im proved configuration for such an instrument, making it readily adaptable to the removal of hooks, regardless of their angle of penetration or location in the fish.

Referring to the drawings,

Fig. l is a plan view of the novel fishhook remover in position to remove a hook from the mouth of a fish;

Fig. 2 is a side elevation view of the instrument, showing the curvature of its head extremity;

Fig. 3 is a top elevation of the instrument showing the curvature of the head and its recessed extremity;

Fig. 4 is a side elevation of the instrument in reversed position from Fig. 2, showing its curvature and recessed p;

Fig. 5 is a perspective view of the instrument in initial position over the point and barb of a hook prior to the removal thereof from the jaw of a fish;

Fig. 6 is a perspective view of the instrument over the hook with the removal operation partially completed; and

Fig. 7 is a perspective view of the instrument at the completion of the removal operation.

In the drawings, 10 indicates the handle of the instrument, which is preferably elongate and of sutfic ient diameter to fit the hand of the operator. Handle 10 may be made of wood or plastic or of any other appropriate material and is preferably smoothly curved, as shown, for ready handling.

Aflixed into and extending outwardly from the head extremity 11 of handle 10 is a suitable metallic shank 12, which is preferably for-med of A: steel tubing which is comparatively thin walled and is provided throughout its length with a bore of at least 5 As shown, shank 12 is firmly aflixed at its inner extremity in head section 11 of handle 10 and extends outwardly therefrom on the axis of handle 10 to a distance equal to substantially onehalf the length of handle 10. As shown, shank 12 is angularly bent toward its outer extremity at 13 and then is brought about in a smooth curve 14 beyond angular bent 13 and is finally again sharply bent at its extremity 15, as shown in Fig. 3, the entire upper extremity of the head of the instrument lying in a plane disposed at a right angle to the plane of the longitudinal axis of handle 10.

Outer or tip extremity 15 of the head of the instrument is ground down to provide a conical penetrating point for the instrument to insure ease of penetration of its tip into the hole made by the hook.

As shown in Figs. 2 and 3, sharpened extremity 15 of the head of the instrument is provided with axial bore or recess 16, which is preferably cylindrical and of a constant diameter of at least A Tip section 15 of the head of the instrument is preferably at least /2" in length to insure the complete enclosure or coverage therein of the point and barb of substantially any size of fresh water hook. As aforesaid, tip section 15 is ground down from its inner to its outer extremity in a gradual, conical taper to provide a point at the outer extremity of the head of the instrument for ease of penetration thereof into flesh or other material once the point and barb are seated Within the terminal recess 16. Due to this pointing or tapering of the tip extremity 15 the instrument will follow the entry hole of the hook with ease and with a minimum of damage to tissues or other material penetrated by the hook.

Referring to Figs. 5, 6 and 7 of the drawings, the instrument is shown in the successive steps of removal of a hook 17, provided with point 18 and barb 19, through the entry hole 20 made by the hook on its penetration of the flesh. It will be noted that the first step in the removal of a hook from the mouth of a fish or from other material penetrated, is to seat the point 18 and barb 19 within recess 16 at the tip extremity 15 of the instrument, care being taken to see that barb 19 of the hook is completely seated within recess 16. Thus, to initiate the removal, as shown in Fig. 5, the instrument is so turned that the hook point 18 and barb 19 are completely seated in recess 16 at the extremity of the instrument. With the hook point and barb thus seated in recess 16, a gentle turning action is applied to handle 10 of the instrument, urging the covered hook point 18 and barb 19 inwardly through the flesh along the path of entry 20 of the hook. At the surface of the flesh, as shown in Fig. 6, the sharpened extremity of tip 15 of the instrument readily penetrates the hole made by the passage of the hook upon its entrance. Once such penetration has been made, slight additional pressure and angular turning of handle 10 will force the tip extremity 15 of the tool through the hook entry hole until it passes out the opposite side thereof, as shown in Fig. 7. Once the extremity of tip 15 of the instrument has emerged from the opposite side of the flesh or other material the barb 19 of the hook is clear of the flesh and the hook may be grasped by its shank and its point and barb removed from terminal recess 16 of tip 15. After removal of the hook,

Patented May 26, 1959- in the manner aforesaid, the extremity 15 of the tool may i be readily removed from the hole in the flesh by reversing the turn of the handle of the instrument to slide point out of the hole. Further, while the hole in the flesh is slightly enlarged it is surgically smooth and clean.

In cases where the point and barb of the hook have not completely passed through the flesh it is necessary to push the point and barb completely through the flesh before they can be placed in recess 16 of tip 15 of the instrument for removal, as aforesaid.

The instrument described herein is adapted primarily for the removal of fresh water hooks of comparatively small size from the mouths of fish and from other material, but it may be enlarged and adapted at will to accommodate any size of hook, even large salt Water hooks. Obviously, if the instrument is to be adapted to larger hooks it must be made larger overall and of heavier construction and the bore 16 of the tip 15 must be enlarged to accommodate the larger point and barb of the salt water hook.

The shank 12 of the instrument may be formed of a solid rod of steel or analogous metal, provided with curved head section 14, sharpened tip 15 and tip recess 16, as in the tubular embodiment.

This specification is by way of illustration of one embodiment of the invention only. As aforesaid, the size and dimensions of the various parts may be modified at will to accommodate hooks of any size.

Attention is directed to the appended claims for a limitation of the scope of this invention.

What is claimed is:

1. In a hook remover, a handle, a tubular metal shank extending outwardly from said handle on the longitudinal axis thereof, an angular bend in the upper extremity of said tubular shank, a curved section extending from said angular bend in a plane at right angles to the longitudinal axis of said handle and a recessed, sharpened tip extremity extending at substantially a right angle to said curved section.

2. In a hook remover, a handle, a small diameter metal tube affixed in the upper extremity of said handle on the longitudinal axis thereof and approximately one-half the length of said handle, a curved head extremity on said tube lying in a plane at right angles thereto, a sharpened hollow tip on said head extremity bent substantially at right angles thereto and lying in the plane of said head extremity.

3. In a hook remover, a handle, a small diameter tube affixed in the extremity of said handle in longitudinal alignment therewith, a substantially semi-circular head member at the upper extremity of said tube lying in a plane at right angles to the longitudinal axis of said handle and provided at its outer end with a sharpened, hollow tip for the reception of the point and barb of a hook.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Steele Mar. 18, 1952 

